Volume 3, No. 1 |
Winter 2008 |
NAACP Interim President/CEO Dennis C. Hayes speaks at the Save Our Homes rally on Wall Street in December 2007.
Last month, the nation’s largest civil rights organizations, along with several community-based and consumer advocacy groups, came together for the “Save Our Homes: Restructure Loans, Not Repossess Homes” rally held in New York’s Financial District (Wall Street). The alliance offered strategies to end the mortgage crisis as well as predatory, discriminatory practices that plague the lending industry and have resulted in a record number of home foreclosures.
The broad coalition called for reforming current mortgage lending practices and a moratorium on active foreclosures. The NAACP and its partners demanded that the mortgage lending industry--all of whom have ties to Wall Street’s investment firms--and policy makers at all levels act now.
“The sub-prime loan is firmly implicated in the severity of the mortgage crisis,” said Interim NAACP President & CEO Dennis Courtland Hayes. “Data shows us that African Americans disproportionately hold more than half of these higher priced loans that stymie families' attempts at keeping good credit, retaining their homes and amassing wealth. The home loans that have been offered to African Americans were built on financial quick sand and we are demanding that a solid foundation be laid to replace the damage that has been done and reduce the risk that stands to decimate whole communities.”
The coalition supports a seven point Homebuyer’s Bill of Rights developed by the National Urban League that includes saving for homeownership, affordable housing opportunities, fairness in lending, fairness in case of loan default and aggressive enforcement of fair housing laws. The complete details of the Homebuyer’s Bill of Rights can be found online at: www.naacp.org, www.nul.org or www.rainbowpush.org.
In July the NAACP filed suit in federal court against 14 of the country’s largest lenders, alleging systematic, institutionalized racism in sub-prime home mortgage lending. This is the first known lawsuit that challenges such lending practices on a broad scale. Those proceedings continue.
The NAACP, National Urban League, RainbowPUSH and its partners vow to keep up the fight for economic equality on all fronts, including in court and in Congress. The coalition encourages Congress to pass a comprehensive bill regulating the sub-prime loan industry to eradicate the current patchwork of 50 state laws.
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